Things are getting out of hand. Or probably not. But there is something going on these days which could be termed as odd? Don't beat yourself up before I get the chance to shake things down by explaining? Or probably just tell? Explain it is! I am a vigorous writer, not in a good way though. Sorry to disappoint.
I have always been fascinated with caffeine. I get around like 4 times a week to the same coffee shop that is there in my vicinity either it is to read or write or just about anything. So, I am a loner that way. The guy at the coffee shop knows better than I do. He knows me because there is the same person almost every day of the shop. Earlier it was on a rotation basis, I guess, or probably the gaps between the visitations were quite large. Well, that can't be true. But anyway that dude over there knows what I have. I could just walk up to him and saw "My regular please" and I would get it to my table with in 5-10 minutes. Now, the other day I witnessed a problem. My regular that I mentioned earlier didn't include just the kind of coffee. No Sir, No. I don't just satisfy myself with a King size cup of coffee. It has its additions, like a big cake piece/ pastry with extra chocolate syrup (thats' the name and also it changes with the location) and then something spicy or normal like a French croissant. Has anyone tried that French croissant? It is so soft that it just melts in the mouth. So awesome. What? Yeah, it costs a little too much for too little of a thing(s), but why does this have to be about money? Anyway, as I was saying the problem! My so called regular is apparently very regular that once in a while I drop one or two things but the third one remains constant. But whenever I do that, oh I forgot to mention something. As I enter the shop, the guy behind the counter kind of already has an idea of what I am going to buy. The other guy literally starts preparing the coffee or slicing the cake. I walk up to the counter tell what I wanted to have as if I was trying out something new and he is like mentally praising himself for being right. But whenever I decide to just have one thing and tell the same, he just looks at me as if I forgot something. In the meantime, I think that the computer is just a little bit more time to complete the order. But then he asks me the obvious question, "And Sir, chocolate fantasy with chocolate syrup and that". I turn my lips into an awkward smile and say "No, not today, Thanks!" and he could see his face frown probably he was mentally un-checking the most obvious order. I feel good that he remembers what I have, yeah genius, no kidding, it isn't a inverse relative theory formula (wait, there is no such thing, don't beat yourself up please) but a little bad for disappointing him in some way. But the other day it is again the same routine. The worst of all is when I decide to have just one and tell just that one, but then again he continues to tell the remaining things of the most obvious regular order as he always does when I don't mention it, I get attracted to it then, if I had decided earlier not to have it. This is not good, right?
Starbucks! The bucks factory. No, not the place were money is created but, collected. It came to Bangalore like an year ago or probably less than that. I was / am a coffee addict as we all know, even that guys at "my" "regular" coffee shop also know plus a few other people, umm, the bottom line is everybody knows. So, I wanted to try this just like I tried at all other coffee shops, most of them since it is not as easy to go around searching for a coffee shop. Wait, nobody does that, right? But I had not been to Starbucks till two weeks prior. I wanted to go, but some circumstantial work or something like that. So I went into the shop and since I had a laptop with me ( a planned coincidence) because well, I wanted to write something. Keeping that mind it might take a while for settling down my mind and then get down to business, I ordered a Cappuccino Grande, the largest cup of the lot. Now, I wanted to spend some time there. But I don't remember saying him that it was a takeaway, but he gave me in a takeaway cup. That is what I hate about exploring places on my own, I have to visit the same place just to get familiar with how the things work there and what to tell. So anyway, I grab my Grande cup after a loud shout of my name along with a couple of sugar packets and head out to the open area just outside the Starbucks shop where the tables were there. I settle myself, open my laptop and pretending to appear busy and "geeky", though miserably failing and saw a few eyes directed towards me with a question "Is this guy for real?". Oh, I didn't mention that I was trying to act smart and hence dressed according, but I wasn't meeting either of the criteria and hence the awkward eyes towards me. Anyway, I pour two packets of sugar mix it and then close the lid. The takeaway cups come with a lid which has a tiny hole for letting the vapors out and another for drinking. So, I fiddle with my laptop typing something which most didn't make sense, wait, it wasn't English or any language that I know of. After pretending to write for something, I take my grande cup of coffee and take a sip. Only that I didn't take a sip but was greeted with hot something on my stomach. I wasn't quite sure why I wasn't able to take a sip, so I pulled it up a little more and then I realized that I was feeing coffee to my stomach and slowly went down from there. I didn't look up, I didn't move as if I saw some ghost, as if I were dead but in a sitting position. After a minute or so, I placed to cup as if I had a nice sip of coffee and was pleased with it and pretended to look at my laptop as if I just received an important mail just that very second. I slowly saw up and there were people all around, some passing by, some having coffee, some just sitting. No wonder it was a big mall and this was in the open in the center of the mall just outside the shop. Nobody I could see was laughing or may be they were laughing or I didn't notice properly. I just wiped out as if the stain would just go. Not to mention I looked like I just peed. That damn lid. I did close it but not proper enough, clearly! The rest of the time I just stared at my laptop cursing and my plan to write something just went down the drain again. I did write but it involved more swearing and just F words like the tape stuck at that word in the stereo.
What's more? One last thing about this coffee thing and I am done. At my office there is usually free coffee. Earlier during my training there was a coffee machine in almost every floor of the building and yeah, it was free. Now this coffee machine had various options that we could choose from, like we would just ask the guy at the counter looking at the list of different items available. Exactly the same but self service plus it was totally free. We could have any number of times in a given day, though during trainings most of the time was restricted to the labs and classrooms, but still. But afterwards when I started working in the actual thing, they limited the number of coffee intake. How, you ask! They started this system with a small booklet which contained like 60 odd leafs and that was it for the month. Then the revolution of clean environment BS like Save Paper thing came up, which was a good thing actually since we didn't had to stand in the queue to get that petty small leaflet. Now the policy was to swipe our ID cards and each employee has a limited number of swipes which is 60 per month, no carry forwards no borrows. It is not a shocker when I usually get a mail regarding the same that I am only left with 15 odd swipes after the tenth day of the month. Then again there are various options from which we could choose from. A Bru Coffee which is kind of odd since my organization has a Tata Tea under its pocket but no Tata Coffee. But anyway, I chose that from among other 10 different varieties available there. Looks like, I have become just too obvious these days because even the guy who serves us the after taking our choice of order, I get mine before I even say it. Lucky me, right?
It is quite clear that I am more than a coffee addict. I have succeeded in establishing that with almost everyone even with people across time zones. No wonder there was a story based on me and specifying my encounters with the Coffee shop. Though this has turned out to be something that people nowadays mock me with. Like when they ask what did you do on the weekend, I would probably say that I hung around at the coffee shop most of the time. The next obvious question is all alone? to which my obvious answer is Yeah, which then leads to the primary question or rather a statement "Oh, you are waiting for your dream girl, just like in the story"! No. Because I know that it is most unlikely to happen and my dream girl is not one person to start with, umm, lets not get into the details of it. But come on, where has anyone seen a girl just walking up in the coffee shop and talking to a perfect stranger. However badly I want that to happen, there is no way on gods' green earth that is going to happen. Ever.
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So, is this going out of hand? Or I am just afraid of change? No, I ain't afraid of no change. Oh God! That sounds horrible! Too much TV *sigh*, I confess! Let me try again. No, I am not afraid of change, it is more concerned about the other things that I am not big of a fan. Though however badly I want to try new things, I can't do without a guide? 'cause mostly it deals with the procedure of how it is done. Last time i ordered a Irish coffee, I had one hell of a time drinking that one large beer-cup-with-narrowing-bottom cup or whatever it is called.
